I recently purchased a DX58SO2 motherboard and I,m having boot issues. the problem is very specific and reproducible . It occurs in two different situations.

Situation 1:

The computer is turned off for a period of 2 hours or more. (I'll call that a cold start) when the power button is pressed the motherboard powers on

runs for 2 seconds then powers off for 1 second ,then powers on again with no boot, all fans running and a 00 on the LED. I then press the Reset button

once and the board powers off for one second and powers on again and then boots. the computer seems to run very stable afterward with no other problems.

Situation 2:

The computer goes into hibernate state and sits that way for 2 or more hours, I click the mouse and the board powers on but hangs with all fans running and

a 00 on the LED. I then press the Reset button (sometimes up to 3 times in this scenario) and the board powers off for one second and powers on again and then boots. also I would like to note that any application/s that were running at the time the computer went into its hibernate state were returned to the same

states they were in upon windows resuming, with no stability issues noticed.

This doesn't seem to be a simple turn the computer off and it won't boot back up problem. its time sensitive in some way.

3. From the BIO's I turned down the voltage on my RAM it was running by default at 1.5125v I turned it Down to 1.5v (per tech support suggestion)

this of course is the only change I have now made to the default BIO's settings.

None of these steps had any effect or helped in any way, the problem persists. I'd like to add that this was a painfull touble shooting session as I had to wait about two hours inbetween tests after successfull boots. to make sure I was reproducing the problem if it was going to occur again after a change.

It has been suggested to me by Tech support that I do not have compatible RAM . I was very supprized to hear this since the DX58SO2 supports the RAM type I purchased, but it turns out that my i7 960 CPU does not infact if you look at the specs none of the 15 Intel Processors listed as compatible with the DX58SO2 are spec'ed out for RAM over 1066mhz. I'm told that the Ram is handled by the CPU now and not the motherboard and that the the BIO's is forcing my 1600mhz ram to run at 1067mhz, which it is. it was suggested that this is the reason that my DX58SO2 is experiencing this boot issue and that if I continued to use this 1600Mhz RAM that I would probably start to experience other unpredicable side effects. I'm not particularly interested in over clocking, I chose the DX58SO2 because it seemed to have alot of potential for me to upgrade my system over time.

I'm was'nt realy So I'm biting the bullet and I have orderd 6GB of 1066mhz

If the 1066mhz RAM doesn't work them I'm pretty much lost for other ideas of how to fix this and I've noticed from these forums that many other folks are having similar issues. but they aren't listing a lot of info for me to compare my situation too. these are the intel spec's for my CPU and the DX58O2

Well, if you look at some of the DX58SO2 threads you'll find that this board does seem to be picky on memory. I currently have it rock solid with 6 x 2GB Kingston HyperX 1600MHz CL9-9-9 @ 1.51V with a 990X, however the memory was SUPPOSED to be CL7-8-7 - however anything faster than 9-9-9 would cause instability issues.

With that said, I do think that your memory should work fine at 1066MHz or even 1333MHz CL9 regardless of what it is, so the fact that it doesn't is troubling.

The double-booting seems to be a particular quirk of this board, and I get it now and again however it does always boot. Normally I leave my system on 24x7, but it was off all afternoon yesterday for work on the UPS, and there weren't any issues booting (well, actually there was - the fans came on at full speed and didn't slow down, and I had to put it to sleep/resume to quiet them down, but that seems to be a long standing occasional quirk of Intel boards - I have another i7 system built December 2009 that does the same thing occasionally).

I have similar problems to those described here. It is very unreliable at startup, but once running is a good machine.For anyone interested I managed to "force" 1600Mhz out of my OCZ ram with the following settings:

Uncore Multi 24

Memory Multiplier 12

7-8-8-24 2T

QPI/Uncore Voltage Override 1.1500

VDram 1.5500

It runs stable with the above settings, but the startup issues are there. Maybe lowering the QPI/Uncore Voltage Override from 1.2250 has made the startup problem worse.

I really notice this problem because I do a lot of cold starts, and don't have time to mess with it. My first Intel board. Can't say I could recommend it until this is resolved.

Can anyone give an example of low voltage ram that is known to work with this board?

Sunfox, I read your post early this morning since I was up all night trying to figure this issue out. I had read a thread that you and evwrt had been running.

but it didn't seem to apply to my situation. After reading your post this morning something you said clicked with me "this board does seem to be picky on memory" it dawned on me that maybe I was avoiding the obvious.I had been avoiding changing the BIO's settings thinking that they where the best/safest by default (As I mentioned before I'm not an over clocker) But the BIO's was forcing my RAM to run under a profile that my RAM wasn't designed for. I purposely bought ram that was designed for the i7 CPU's and to run the XMP 1.2 profile and it is designed to run at 1600mhz at 1.5v. But I wasn't running it at that. I hadn't considered changing the default BIO's settings aside from lowering the voltage.

Sooo, at 5am this morning I set this Profile:

Note: I'm listing the defaults and current/proposed settings

Profile

Default

BIO's Settings

Proposed

Memory multiplier

8X

12X

tCL

8

8

tRCD

8

8

tRP

8

8

tRAS

19

24

CMD

2T

2T

tRRD

4

6

tWR

8

12

tRTP

4

6

tWTR

4

6

tRFC

86

128

tFAW

20

30

tRC

27

40

Uncore Multiplier

16X

24X

Memory Speed

1066.64MHz

1599.96MHz

Uncore Speed

2133.28MHz

3199.92MHz

Memory Voltage

1.5125v

1.5000v

Core voltage

1.2000v

1.2000v

Uncore Voltage

1.2250v

1.3500v

Dynamic CPU Voltage Offset

1.2000mV

1.2000mV

IOH Voltage

1.1000v

1.1000v

After I implemented the proposed profile, I started testing. I ran it under load for about a half hour then turned the machine off for about 5 hours. then hit the power button and it booted perfectly. I ran it for a bit checked the temps and took a look at the readings in the tuning utility, then walked away from it to let it hibernate. Two and a half hours later I came back pressed the mouse to wake the machine and it booted right up. I did this twice today and both times it has booted properly, I ran a stress test on it after the second wake just a 5 min one and then I rendered a few frames with heavy ray trace settings. which is almost better then a stress test IMHO. then I shut the machine down and I am waiting at the time of writing this, to boot it again from a cold start. these are the first results I've been able to archive relative to this issue I'm hoping that this will fix the problem and isn't just a quirk, but I'm by no means calling this answered yet. I've got about 2 more days till my Crucial PC8500 1066MHz 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel RAM gets here and I'm going to turn this machine on and off till it gets here trying to reproduce the boot issue. if it doesn't happen again I'll send the 1066mhz RAM back and if it dose happen again ill try the 1066MHz Ram and see if it helps. Robert if that dosn't work then ill try lower voltages. I have two weeks left before I can't return the board for my money back and I'll try to fix it to the very end. I really want to like this Board it offers so much and I'm only having this one problem. But I feel like I bought a new car and the only way I can get it to start is if I push it and pop the clutch. I have to ask also do you see anything wrong with running my RAM at these speeds all the time. I know the RAM can handle it, but could it cause damage to the CPU.

Right after I made my last post I turned my machine on again for the forth cold start of the day. thats two waking cold starts and two powered off cold starts and each time the computer was allowed to hibernate or was powered off for two hours or more. Sofar each time now it has booted properley. this is the first day out of a week of trying I have been able to get a good result. I know your using different RAM then I am but maybe take a look at the settings I posted perhaps they will help you as well. I've got my fingers Crossed that this result isn't just a fluke. I'm going to load test the machine again now and turn it off for the night and try it again in the morning.

Sorry I can't be of more help. A short while ago I ran shutdown/startup tests in groups. I first ran 10 shutdowns at 1 minute intervals, using a live cd. I later ran tests at greater intervals, in smaller groups due to time constraints. I repeated some of the tests with different voltages and ram speeds. Mine fails to start in about 3 out of 10 starts. If I change the ram speed, it usually fails to start on the following boot, after I get it going again it returns to normal.

I did more testing today, sofar so good, not a single issue. my machine has booted first time everytime 100% properly. aside from doing cold starts today I also tested multiple starts in short order. I wasn't having any USB issues at all but I've been reading about folks having them and I wanted to make sure I wasn't trading one problem for another so I tested that also. I plugged in my 600GB external USB 2.0 Hard Drive, my Wacom Intuos2 Tablet and some USB speakers I had laying around just for good measure. aside from the Keyboard and mouse I had all my other USB devices unplugged during previous testing just incase there was a conflict. I can Report that everything is sofar working 100% properly.

Hi Telly, your problem probably deserves its own thread. More info about the problem may be needed too.

Glad to hear your problem is resolved swiss_cheese. I went back into BIOS and looked over all my settings. I had the CPU on dynamic and never noticed what voltage it was running at. Why would the cpu vcore show as 1.5?? V in BIOS? I set it to 1.2 V static, and it looks like it may have helped speed up booting at least. 1.5V sounds like a dangerous voltage to me.

I've never had vcore up so high, could it cause intermittent startup issues?

I've never had vcore up so high, could it cause intermittent startup issues?

My opinion is 100% yes it can, changing the voltages can have all kinds of unpredictable effects. conceder what happen to me with my RAM after I made the right changes it was like throwing a light switch I haven't had the boot issue since. but before that I was starting to think I had a defective motherboard.

my understanding is that the default core voltage of the i7 960 CPU is a nominal 1.2v and can run safe for overclock at 1.4v. but I have also read that you should not exceed 1.65v that came from Intel and that suggests to me that with proper cooling 1.5v shouldn't be a problem. however Intel says its good between 0.800V-1.375V. I've had this board in a working system and have been trouble shooting it for a week now, and I'm still learning about it. I learned the hard way that the memory controller was transferred from the north bridge (motherboard) directly in the processor itself. this changed everything it seems to be making everything very picky/quirky. every little setting seems to effect everything else luckily Intel gave us the "Extreme Tuning Utility". so my opinion is that you did the right thing for now by going to a core voltage of 1.2v I'm not sure about switching off dynamic voltage though from what I understand the dynamic voltage is used by the operating system to overvolt or undervolt the CPU as needed within a safety range. I'm not sure I'm right about that part though. I'm thinking you have an issue with your RAM or RAM settings from what I've learned in the past week and what I've been reading in the thread you started.

As I said I'm still learning this board and CPU combo so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt.

I found a whole new issue today during testing with the dynamic fan sppeed controller and sleep mode. that could relate to something Sunfox said in this thread about his fans. but isn't the same situation. I've made a couple of attempts today to resolve it but didn't get a result I'm going to post the problem here in this thread tomorow in the hopes that you guys might be able to shed some light on it for me.

I haven't been able to reproduce any of my problems after changing vcore, but I haven't tried very hard too either. Its stable in real world usage as far as I can see.

In the past I have always overclocked my systems but with the recent failure of an Asus motherboard I decided to keep this one on defaults as much as possible. That proved more difficult than I had expected. I still can't work out why when I restore defaults in BIOS my vcore goes to 1.5 V.

This fan speed thing has me interested. I have all my fans set to static and prefer not to use any sleep states, so I have yet to witness anything like this. Also, thanks for sharing you experiences.

evwrt I have my processor core set to dynamic, I'm viewing this in the BIO's under Performance>Voltages>Processor Core = Dynamic. that is the default setting. to the best of my knowledge that would carry me over to the Power Menu in the BIO's. Power>Intel Dynamic Power Technology>(followed by) Enhanced Intel Speedstep,Processor C States,QPI Power Management and C1E. all four of these are set to Enable by default.

I don't know what other software you use to view your system INFO, I'm using Intel Extreme Tuning Utility keeping in mind that we both have the i7 960 CPU when I view my Processor 1 Core Voltages at idle it's 0.9412v at 1.60GHz, increasing load it's 1.2235v at 3.20GHz and finally full load 1.2580v at 3.47GHz.

I've noticed in the BIO's Exit menu that there are options for saving & Loading Custom Defaults and I'm wondering if you didn't make or set some custom defaults at some point, and when you select reset defaults perhaps it is defaulting to those instead of the factory/latest BIO's Defaults. I haven't messed with these and don't know what there functionality is, so this is the only suggestion I could think of. I'm Hoping this helps you.

I'm still stable and booting with no issues after three days and I have been testing the entire three days. I am still experiencing the Dynamic Fan Control issue after waking and I still plan on asking those questions here. But, today I received my Crucial PC8500 1066MHz 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel RAM Kit and I was going to return it because the 6GB CorsairVengeance 1600MHz PC12800 DDR3 RAM 3x 2048mb triple channel Kit has been running flawlessly as far as I can tell for 3 days now. I would like to NOTE: the Crucial PC8500 1066MHz 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel RAM (dose not) support the 1.2 XMP and the CorsairVengeance 1600MHz PC12800 DDR3 RAM 3x 2048mb triple channel does. both of these RAM types are a native 1.5v. The Crucial isn't on the list of tested RAM that Intel provides for this Board but it is manufactured by Micron and I'm pretty sure Crucial is a subsidiary. Either way it meets all the specs for the CPU & Board. so I couldn't help myself it was only 65$ (Tech support suggested I try this) so even though I'm pretty sure I resolved my boot issue I just wanted to see how things would act with this RAM. Before I removed the 1600MHz RAM I restored the default BIO's settings, powered off and I gently removed my 1600MHz RAM and installed the 1066MHz. then powered it on, the machine booted but it did a 1sec on 2sec off then powered on again thing before it booted. when I opened XTU to view the memory settings I noticed that all the settings had not defaulted back to there prior defaults (I have them all Noted on paper) so in XTU I set all the memory defaults to the the RAM's spec Defaults and rebooted with no delay this time. it's only been in the machine for a few hours now but I have been able to do some testing. I won't post all that INFO yet because it's only been a few hours. not long enough for a good baseline. aside from making sure it boots properley with the 1066MHz RAM I,m also going to look at the sleep/wake behavior with this RAM installed. so im going totake another day or two and see how it goes. Incase anyone is interested.

After installing the Crucial CT3KIT25664BA1067 PC8500 1066MHz 6GB DDR3 Triple Channel RAM I'm experiencing the exact same boot issue with the same reproducible results. I've been testing since 5pm yesterday. I'm trying to find a timing and voltage combo that will make it work like it did with the 1600MHz RAM. I'm as far from being an expert with this as it's possible to be, but I,m thinking it's got to do with the UnCore voltage so I'm turning it up slowly and waiting two hours to try booting again. I won't exceed 1.35v. Looks like the tech support guy was wrong about what was causing the problem.